"Earlier this week Apple fired Scott Forstall, the architect of its iOS platform, and handed his duties over to the company's chief industrial designer, Jonathan Ive. Ive and Forstall had an infamously chilly working relationship, and one of their biggest disagreements was over the role of so-called 'skeuomorphic' design in Apple's products. Forstall, like his mentor Steve Jobs, favored it; Ive disliked it. To many observers, Forstall's forced exit looks like a vindication of Ive's stance. But if he wants to continue Apple's enviable trend of innovation, he'd be a fool to throw the baby of skeuomorphism out with Forstall's bathwater." Hoped for a thorough article on the benefits of skeuomorphism - got the age-old and intrinsically invalid excuse 'because it sells'. Windows isn't he best desktop operating system because it sells so well. Lady Gaga isn't the best artist because she sells a lot of records. This argument is never valid, has zero value, and adds nothing to what should be an interesting discussion.

hmm, So those who don't find skeuomorphism attractive are somehow perverse. Don't buy it or the idea it's removal would end Apples commercial success.

Personally, I find skeuomorphism has a place in design just not the absurd level it's reached at Apple. Besides, and I suppose this is even more subjective, so many of them just suck. They look crap and dated which doesn't mean skeuomorphism is bad in-itself just Apples design team really suck at visuals.